This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Personal Care – $588

Personal care is an area where you don’t “win” by cutting things out. Keep yourself clean. Brush your teeth. Basic hygiene keeps you clean and keeps you presentable, too.

Yet, even here, there are ways to trim a little bit of spending without affecting your cleanliness or appearance. Here are a few tactics worth considering.

Don’t buy grooming products at your local salon/barber shop. Even if they have the “perfect” product for you, don’t buy it there. The mark-up is often out of this world. Instead, jot down the product name (if that’s the one you must have) or the type of product, go home, and do your own research. Even if you decide you do need it, you can find the product cheaper elsewhere – and you’re still supporting a local business by using their services.

Don’t be afraid to try the lower-cost brands. I used to believe my hair needed certain products to look good. Now I usually use Pert Plus or, sometimes, whatever happens to be on sale. It looks fine – and I would have never known this if I hadn’t tried it to begin with. Give the low-cost brands a try – you might be surprised to find that your hair is just fine. Of course, this isn’t always true – if that’s the case, don’t hestitate to immediately switch back to what works.

Yes, it’s true here, too – bulk buying and coupons work. Once you’ve identified products that work for you, buy them in large quantities, ideally with the aid of a coupon. I always buy three-packs of deodorant, three packs of toothpaste, enormous jugs of shampoo, and the like. It’s significantly cheaper per use.

Cut down (or cut out entirely) the perfume and/or cologne. Sure, it’s fine for a date, but for day-to-day use, it’s not worth it. It often sends the wrong social signal and some people don’t appreciate the smell at all – or even have allergies. Use deodorant and keep yourself clean and you’re fine for day to day purposes.

Cut down on the cosmetics, too. The only reason someone should wear cosmetics is if it improves their self-confidence. If you’re not getting that, don’t invest the time or the money in cosmetics for daily use. Most of the time, people look great without it.

Read the directions. You need surprisingly little shampoo or conditioner to clean your hair. You need surprisingly little toothpaste to clean your teeth. If you have a habit of using more than just a dab of any product, read the directions and make sure you’re not over-using. If you’re using three times as much as you should, you’re buying three bottles for every one you actually need to buy.

Get the last little bit out. When the toothpaste tube seems empty, put the cap back on and cut off the bottom – you can still squeeze out a surprising amount. When the shampoo or conditioner run low, turn them upside down and leave them that way for a day – you’ll get another couple of washes. Don’t just throw away perfectly good stuff – that’s the same as throwing cash out the door.

Make your own – when it works. One great example is hand sanitizer – just mix one cup of aloe vera (it’s not too expensive, even if you have to buy it – even better if it’s free because you have access to a plant), one half cup of isopropyl alcohol, and a drop or two of an essential oil you like. Mix well, put it in a squirt bottle, and you have a much cheaper alternative to Purell that’s basically the exact same thing. You can make your own versions of many such things, like toothpaste (seriously, just mix half a cup of baking soda, a tiny dash of salt, 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide, one drop of peppermint oil if you like it minty, and just a bit of stevia to make it sweet – stevia can be found at most health food stores – and just mix it into a paste) or skin care products (just use lemon juice).

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, two years ago this week, and three years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.

One Year Ago (January 17 – January 23, 2009)
Financial Success and Sacrifice We only have so much time and energy. Each choice we make that helps us take a step forward in one area is often met with a step backward in another. What are we willing to step backward in?

How I Look at Economic News: Beyond the Talking Heads Most of the people parroting “news” on television are just feeding us storylines to amplify our emotions – making us more open to buying products. Here’s how to get past that and dig into the real information.

A Reader Asks About His Checking Account and Bernie Madoff Is a basic checking account at risk due to unscrupulous bankers? Not if you have FDIC insurance. I answer some basic questions about this here.

Personal Finance 101: How Much Money Is That Investment Really Earning Each Year? Once you break down the costs, investments really don’t earn nearly as much as we like to think they do.

Frugality, Freedom, Hard Work, and the Best Life Has to Offer We all want the best out of life. What exactly does “best” mean, though? We all have different definitions. This post explores that a little bit.

Two Years Ago (January 17 – January 23, 2008)
The Ballad of the Rusty Bumper The bumper on my truck has still not been replaced. It’s got more rust spots than before, but still looks largely good.

Preparing Your Own Skillet Meals In Advance Skillet meals are a popular convenience food, but you can make your own and store them in a Ziploc. They’re quite a bit cheaper – and quite a bit healthier, too, and often tastier.

Personal Finance and the Fundamental Choice What do you really value in life? Personal finance is almost always a choice between different values we all have. The question is whether or not we can dig deep enough to make the right choice.

The Value of Customer Service How much is good customer service really worth? Here, I try to break it down into dollars and cents – with some interesting conclusions.

Video Games and Frugality Can video games be a frugal hobby? Indeed, they can be – but a big part of it is separating your enjoyment of video games from the pervasive “cult of the new.”

Three Years Ago (January 17 – January 23, 2007)
Six Ways To Follow Up That Big Financial Talk With Your Spouse You finally sat down and had “the big money talk” with your spouse. Don’t let things end on that note – do something to build upon the positives of the evening and leave the negatives behind.

Deconstructing Dave Ramsey This article still pretty much sums up my thoughts and feelings towards Dave. In a nutshell, he’s high on my list of mainstream media financial gurus. I agree with his message 90% of the time.

Photo Diary #1: A Trip To The Grocery Store The pictures of my son at about sixteen months just make me smile whenever I see them. He still unabashedly loves his goldfish, too. For the most part, though, this is a good walkthrough on how to compare prices and sizes.

Personal Finance Workbooks: Worthwhile Or Not? I think they’re worthwhile if you need walked through the steps. Usually, though, they don’t have enough ideas in them to really satisfy me.

Personal Finance 101: Charge Cards and Credit Cards Quite often, the two terms are used interchangeably, but they’re actually two very distinct things. This article explains the difference between the two in clear detail.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

Nine Ways to Get More out of The Simple Dollar
This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are nine great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.

1. Subscribe by email or RSS. Visiting The Simple Dollar’s website is great, but for many people, it’s more convenient to receive the articles in another form. It’s easy to join 60,000 other subscribers and get The Simple Dollar’s content by email or in your RSS feeder (if you’re unfamiliar with RSS, check out Google Reader.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

3. Read my story of financial meltdown and recovery. The Simple Dollar isn’t based on what I’ve read in books or learned in school. I’ve made a lifetime of financial mistakes – The Simple Dollar is a record of what works for me during the process of getting my life on a better track.

4. Download my free 49 page e-book. Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page is completely free. It summarizes all of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way about personal finance in one tidy package – in fact, all of the main principles can be found right on the cover.

5. Follow me on Twitter – or other social networks. I post tons of interesting articles, quotes, follow-up material, commentary, and other material on Twitter. Follow me! If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s essentially an open discussion forum for people to share ideas and thoughts with other like-minded folks – you just choose the people you want to listen to and their ideas and thoughts are all delivered to you on a single page.

I also participate on several other social networks. Feel free to check me out on del.icio.us (it’s where I collect links, from which I select the ones that appear in my weekly roundups), wakoopa (what software I use), GoodReads (what books I’m reading), Facebook, and FriendFeed (which aggregates everything). I also have an irregularly-updated personal site, TrentHamm.com.

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

7. Send me your questions and suggestions. Send me an email and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I try to respond to as many emails as possible and I read them all. I may even use your question in a future article!

8. Become a “Friend of The Simple Dollar.” If you find the stuff on The Simple Dollar valuable and are willing to spend five minutes or so a month to help me out with small things, please consider signing up to be a “Friend of The Simple Dollar”.

9. Email a great article you find to a friend. Find an article that you think your friend would love? At the bottom of each article, you’ll find a link that says “Email this” – just click on that, type in your friend’s address, and send it right along to them!

This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Alcoholic Beverages – $457

The solution to cutting this element of your budget is easy.

Don’t drink.

For many of us, though, that’s not really a solution. I often enjoy a glass of red wine with my dinner and I like a mixed drink once in a while, particularly on social occasions. I know I’m far from alone in this type of attitude towards alcoholic beverages, too.

What’s the solution for keeping such spending under control? Let’s look at a few options.

Don’t spend more than $10 on a bottle of wine. There are thousands of different options for wines under $10. You don’t need the $50 bottle of wine in order to enjoy a nice glass of red with dinner. Pick up a low cost bottle and give it a swing.

Keep track of the low cost ones you do enjoy. This way, you can share these good low-cost wines when guests come over instead of feeling compelled to drop cash on a more expensive bottle that has some “promise” of being good (but really doesn’t have any such promise at all).

Have social events at home. Instead of going out for drinks and paying a hefty surcharge to sit in some loud, miserable place, have events at your own home. Have people bring a bottle of something they like and do something together, like play a board game or watch a film.

Look for specials. Alcohol is actually one of the most common loss leaders that stores use to get people in the door. Keep an eye on the prices local stores have in their flyer for your particular beverage of choice and stock up when it’s cheap.

Drop the brand snobbishness. Most of the times, brands are nothing more than the product of a lot of clever marketing – and you pay for that marketing with a higher sticker price. Nowhere is that more true than with alcoholic beverages, when you often pay substantially more for just a name on a label. If you doubt it, combine the idea with a social event at your home and have a blind taste test, for fun. You’ll likely be surprised.

Don’t drink at the restaurant. If you’ve decided to go out and eat, great! Have fun! However, you’re almost always far better off if you don’t consume alcoholic beverages at the restaurant, because they’re often exorbitantly overpriced. Instead, limit yourself to just a glass of wine with dinner, if that, and then enjoy a drink elsewhere with your dining companions.

Make your own. I make my own beer and find it to be cheaper to brew craft beers than to buy them. The savings is even stronger with wine, provided you find a reasonably-priced supplier. Make your own – it doesn’t take much equipment and it’s surprisingly fun to have others try your home brew.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

Howie writes in:

My wife and I have been running our own home-based business for three years now. We rent and work out of a smallish 2-bedroom apartment in the very expensive SF Bay Area. One of those bedrooms is an office that we both share as an office. We spend day in/day out working together in this small space.

About a year ago we realized we could afford to buy a house in an outer suburb of the Bay Area now that the prices have come down. After a year of looking, we’ve now found ourselves in contract on a wonderful 4-bedroom house that we love. However, it’s at the top of our price range–about 30% of our income would go to the mortgage.

I realize that typically this would not be a good idea, as at least at the beginning, we would be stretched. However, the biggest reason we are looking to move right now is to gain more space so that we can grow our business. Currently, we feel like we’ve reach critical mass with what we can do in our small office. With this house, we feel it could be an income-generating asset for us in that it will afford us more space for us to grow our business and make more money. I very much feel like if we had more room to operate and a more official dedicated workspace, we could increase our income significantly.

Most financial advisers I’ve been reading say to buy a small, inexpensive home. This would be fine for us if we didn’t both work from home, but we simply need more space to operate our business.

Of course we could buy a small house and rent an office somewhere, but I’ve done the math on that too, and when you combine smaller house mortgage with separate office rent, the cost is essentially a wash.

The other option would be to rent a bigger house. Rents in the Bay Area are still high, and we would spend about $200/mo less doing this. I know every bit counts, but I don’t know if this savings outweighs the emotional benefits that go with working and living in a home that we own. We also want to start a family and are ready to put down roots.

Finally, we could ditch the Bay Area entirely and move somewhere much cheaper, such as Oregon. While there is some risk in leaving a few of our local clients behind, we could do this with not much risk, as most of clients are all over the country. This option would put us where we want to be financially, but as I mentioned, we want to start having kids soon, and most of my family is here in the Bay Area. Moving away seems daunting.

First of all, your emotional argument is clearly in favor of buying the home. Most of the argument you lay out here is one that makes the case for buying above all else.

Most of the time, regardless of the dollars and cents, people operate with their emotions. They’ll find ways to make the dollars and cents work. In fact, that’s when personal finance really cooks – people spend time soul searching, discover the key things they really want, and then stop wasting money on the things that don’t really matter to them.

In this case, it’s clear that the home matters to you. What things are less important in your life that you’re willing to trade for it?

The maintenance costs of home ownership are far higher than renting. When you buy a home, you no longer have a landlord to call when a toilet breaks or a hot water heater goes out. Instead, you’re calling a repairman – or doing it yourself – and all expenses come out of your pocket. You also have lawn maintenance costs. You also have homeowners’ insurance. You also have property taxes. You also may have association fees. Those can be enormous – they can be enough to break the back of someone who thinks they can afford home ownership.

Beyond the financial cost is the time cost. Suddenly, you’re spending time mowing the yard. You’re spending time changing filters and doing maintenance work on your equipment. You’ve also got more space than you had before, so you’re spending more time cleaning.

Paying these costs – in addition to merely writing the check for your monthly mortgage payments – will exact a toll on your life as you currently live it.

In exchange for that toll, you will gain other things – the room to grow your business and the room to house your family.

It’s an emotional decision that you have likely already made. There are just two things I would suggest seriously evaluating before you actually make the leap to buy.

First, do you have an adequate down payment? This is important for two reasons. First, if you don’t have the financial fortitude to save up that payment while living in a rental unit, where the costs are much lower, you may not have the fortitude to handle the costs of home ownership. Second, without a 20% down payment, you’ll be paying a higher interest rate and/or mortgage insurance costs.

Second, do you have a written, clear plan for how you will make ends meet and how you will utilize that space to grow your business? These both may be nebulous concepts for you right now, but if you buy, they will become your reality. Spend some time actually planning for both of these events. Make a home budget. Make a business plan. Make sure you can actually do this with some breathing room (and an emergency fund) intact.

Yes, this seems like a lot of planning that takes away the “fun” of buying a home. Without that planning, though, you’re quite likely to find yourself losing that very house in a few years. A little planning now makes your dreams come true.

This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Housing – housekeeping supplies – $639

Garbage bags. Dishwashing detergent. Window cleaner. Vacuum bags. Laundry detergent. These are all housekeeping supplies and, over the course of a year, they really add up. $53 a month goes down the drain just to these supplies (and often, it quite literally goes down the drain).

Fortunately, this is yet another area where you can make serious cuts without cramping your style.

Start with vinegar and baking soda. Most cleaning needs in your home can be solved by one or both of these substances – and they’re far cheaper than most cleaning supplies. Water-vinegar and water-baking soda solutions make great cleaners, and mixing baking soda and vinegar over a stain works like a charm. Baking soda works great as a deodorizer anywhere, and vinegar does wonders when cleaning the floor.

Make your own. I’m well known for making my own laundry detergent, but that just scratches the surface. You can make solutions for anything using inexpensive ingredients, from window cleaner to toilet bowl cleaner.

Buy in bulk. Most housekeeping supplies keep for a very long time, thus they’re perfect targets for buying in bulk. Large quantities of dishwashing detergent, laundry soap, and other materials are great to have on hand – they will essentially never go bad and you’re quite sure you’ll eventually use all of it. Plus, buying in bulk means that you save a little each time you use it.

Try different brands. Try the generics. Try the not-so-generics. Experiment with the different brands to find the one that does the job for you at the lowest price. Often, generics will do the trick. Sometimes, they won’t. Try different low cost brands and find the one that works best for you at the cheapest price.

Use coupons. Coupons work great for housekeeping supplies, even if you buy in bulk. They simply shave a little more off of the price of something you would buy anyway. Remember, though, to compare the costs after coupons, because quite often coupons won’t save you enough to make it a better deal than the generic.

Read the directions. Many people drastically waste their household products, doing things like using three or four times as much laundry detergent than they need. Take a moment to read the directions on your household products and you might find that you’re using far too much – and that cutting back to a reasonable amount will work just fine and save you money.

Buy what you actually need, not what you think you need. I’m looking squarely at you, SoftScrub in my closet. I’m not saying that SoftScrub isn’t useful for cleaning – it really is – but most of the times I would break out the SoftScrub, I find other solutions that work just as well and are a lot cheaper and more convenient – I’m looking at you, baking soda paste. Don’t buy it unless you’re sure you need it, and try out using baking soda and vinegar in cleaning solutions first.

Use cloth rags instead of paper towels. Paper towels are one-and-done items – you use them, then you toss (or burn) them. Cloth rags can be used hundreds of times. Even better, they don’t really have a laundry cost, since you can just throw a dirty handful into any load of laundry without altering the load a bit. Keep a kitchen drawer full of cloth rags instead of constantly rebuying paper towels and you’ll see your budget happily drop a bit.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

During the entire “Trimming the Average Budget” series, the focus has been on spending less money. It’s a walkthrough of every significant financial element of an average American family’s life – and a look at how they can spend less in each of those areas.

Saving money is a powerful tool, but it’s equally important to recognize that increasing your income is at least as powerful as saving money – and putting the two in tandem is particularly powerful.

There are many, many ways to increase your income. Most of them boil down to the following:

Earning more at your current job. Simply asking your boss for a raise increases your income in surprising ways. Even if you work hourly for 40 hours a week, a simple quarter per hour raise earns you $520 more per year.

Getting a new, better job in your career path. This can come in the form of a promotion at your current job or a new job at a different location. Either way, you’re often earning more (sometimes a lot more), but there’s often more responsibility (and more work) in exchange for that pay.

Starting over with a new, more lucrative career. At first, this often means a dip in earnings (it certainly did for me). However, it often means a job that you’re more passionate about and, over time, you can really jack up your earnings by riding that train of passion.

Getting a second job. To put it simply, this means trading more of your time for more money, but often not at as good of a rate as your main job. This is a great way to boost your income over a short time, but it’s hard to sustain without serious burnout.

Starting a side business. Many people (myself included) engage their free time and their passions by starting a side business to profit from the things they’re interested in.

Whatever path you choose will help you earn more. However, all of these paths have several key skills in common – skills everyone can work on to improve their earning potential. Here are a few of these skills that will help you to earn more no matter what you’re doing – and a few simple ways to work on them.

Communication skills The ability to effectively communicate your ideas, your thoughts, and key information to others is essential in almost any career path – even ones that seem quite solitary.

How can I improve my communication skills? Read more. That’s the first step. After that, write more. Plop yourself down with a book that interests you, then when you’re done, send an email to a friend about it. Another effective way is to teach someone else a skill you already have, as it forces you to communicate very carefully.

Organization skills Over the last few decades, the economy has really transformed into an information economy, in which the flow of ideas and data is incredibly powerful. The more skill you have in organizing all of that data that comes your way, the better worker you will be no matter what your specific job is.

How can I improve my organization skills? Get control over your own information. Maintain an organized calendar for yourself that has all the relevant information right there. Start a personal filing system for all of your important documents. Organize your picture collection in such a fashion that you can find any picture you want quickly and easily.

Politeness and presentability Rudeness and crassness might fly with the gang and it might get a giggle out of a coworker, but it won’t ever do you any favors over the long term. Why? Much of the economy is a service economy, and even big pieces of the economy that aren’t centered around service involve interacting with customers and associates. The better you interact with them, the better off you are.

How can I improve my politeness and presentability? Clean up. Dress well. Bite your tongue. Speak slowly and choose your words with a bit more care. Encourage polite speech in every element of your life – if the gang you usually hang out with uses a lot of crude language and a thick accent, work hard to battle against that with your own speaking.

Handling criticism well I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen employees completely blow up when criticized about any aspect of their work performance. If you tend to fire back with insults or shouting or seething rage when you’re criticized, you’re not going to go anywhere. Remember, the vast majority of the time, criticism is issued in the workplace to improve the overall workplace, which you’re a part of. It’s not a vendetta against you – it’s someone trying to make things better.

How can I improve my ability to handle criticism? Don’t get angry. If you have nothing worthwhile to say in response, say nothing at all. Do not fire back with insults. Later, after you’ve had a chance to calm down, think about the criticism. Likely, there was a reason it was issued. Take some time to actually act on that criticism and attempt to improve yourself. The more you do this, the easier it becomes – and you’ll see improvements in how others treat you and the opportunities that come your way.

These ideas just scratch the surface, but they point to a big truth: improving yourself in constructive ways improves your earning potential. That’s a big part of the equation of financial success.

This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Miscellaneous – $808

“Miscellaneous” seems like a vague category at first, but when I actually dug into the items included in that chunk, I quickly found that one big element makes up most of what falls under “Miscellaneous.”

Finance charges.

Every dime in interest paid on credit cards or consumer loans (besides mortgages and auto loans) falls directly under the “Miscellaneous” category. The number is completely reasonable, too, when you think about the fact that the average American family carries about $8,000 in credit card debt. If they’re paying 10% on that debt, there’s $800 a year.

Obviously, the big solution for cutting this section of your budget is to cut your credit card debt. Here are some steps for doing just that.

Cut up your cards – now. Learn how to live without them. If you like the convenience of using a card, switch to using your debit card but sign for everything – don’t actually use it with your PIN, as you have more protection against fraud if you sign.

Call your credit card companies and ask for a rate reduction. Flip over your card, call the number on the back, and play a little hardball. Here’s my detailed guide for doing this.

Set up a detailed debt repayment plan in writing. Make a list of all of your debts. Order them by size or by interest rate (whichever you prefer – there are advantages either way). Then start paying them off by throwing big extra payments at the top one on your list. Here’s my detailed guide to starting your own debt repayment plan.

Automate, automate, automate. Automate an extra debt payment each month. Instruct your bank (via online banking, of course) to send an extra payment to your most painful debt each month – and then forget about it. Pay your bills as normal. The extra payment will whittle away at your balance over time.

Snowflake it! Whenever you serendipitously acquire a bit of extra money or find a clever new way to save some money, don’t spend it on something frivolous. Instead, sock it away in your piggy bank and, at the end of the month, add that extra money to that month’s extra debt repayment. It’ll help melt away your debts even faster.

Get a “debt buddy.” This works just like a dieting buddy. Find someone who has resolved – like you have – to pay down their debts. Hold each other accountable. Share tips with each other. Engage in frugal activities together. You might just find that it blossoms a whole new lifestyle.

Tell others. This seems scary, but it works. Tell your spouse about your debt situation. Tell your parents about it. Tell a few of your friends. Tell your sister. Then tell them exactly how you’re going to fix the problem. They will become your cheerleaders and your motivators to stay on track.

Use the other tips in this series. If you’re actively working to trim other parts of your budget, you’ll find that you automatically have more money for debt repayment, which helps you to trim away that “miscellaneous” part of your budget even faster.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

Lately, I’ve been working with a coder to help me with some back-end issues with The Simple Dollar, as there have been a few bugs floating around in the software I use to update the site, the most onerous of which is that some small fraction of comments seem to disappear before I ever get to see them in the moderation queue. He’s also implementing a few features, such as automated text elements in posts (like the “shelter” bit in the Trimming the Average Budget series, which I couldn’t figure out how to change for about a week).

Anyway, over the next month, you might occasionally see some minor bugs pop up here and there on the site. Don’t sweat it – I’m almost always aware of the bug and it’s usually there in an attempt to make something work better or faster or more conveniently (for me and for you). If you do see something that’s really interfering with reading the site, please email me directly about it.

In the Absence of “Yes” How can we handle situations where the key decision that makes up success or failure is completely outside our control? We all face these situations – in essence, a job application is that very thing. I really like the advice here, and it’s left me thinking for days (I also left a long comment there). (@ soul shelter)

Five Ways to Get Started Making Money Online This basically outlines the five ways to make long term, sustainable money online. However, these methods are a time sink up front if you want to really build any degree of lasting success with them. (@ dumb little man)

Help a Reader: How to Stay Motivated For me, using the numbers alone is a poor way to stay motivated. If I had just looked at the balance of our credit card bills and tried to use them as a motivator, I would have failed. Instead, look for personal, tangible goals – things you really want, not a bank account balance – and specify them as clearly as possible. (@ free money finance)

Saving With Purpose: Short Term Goals Whenever people plan for the future, short term goals are often completely overlooked – and they often result in debt. (@ frugal dad)

Career Fairs … are neither. I agree completely with this take on career fairs. They’re usually an extremely poor way for people to find out what they want to do with their life or to get their foot in the door with anything. (@ seth godin)